Why We Must Vaccinate

Another great video by C0nc0rdance showing the importance of vaccination. I have covered this before, for some reason my prior post has been getting tons of hits recently, and just in the last few days a new report was released which showed, shockingly, that vaccines do not cause Autism (NPR article on the report). The report did show that vaccines have side effects, this is not surprising as almost all medicines do, but that the side effects were typically minor especially when compared to the harm the actual disease would have done.

Another Response to McCarthy

In January I wrote a post about an opinion piece by Jenny McCarthy on the problems with vaccines. In that post I explained how several of the comments that she wrote were wrong on several factual layers. Well on Saturday the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) published an article that included some of what I pointed out but also included more as well as more references, and who are we kidding it was much more professional. One of the things I really wanted to point out was something that they said at the end.

As an aside, repeating the words of parents is not how science is done; science uses anecdotes as a starting point to coin hypotheses, and that’s where the relationship ends. Anti-vaxxers cannot have it both ways: either Wakefield was only repeating parent’s words, or he was doing a proper scientific investigation of the parent’s concerns.

Next, McCarthy completes the circle: after the incorrect factual statements, and the hint to conspiracy, comes the irate-mom-who-won’t-take-no-for-an-answer act:

I know children regress after vaccination because it happened to my own son. Why aren't there any tests out there on the safety of how vaccines are administered in the real world, six at a time? Why have only 2 of the 36 shots our kids receive been looked at for their relationship to autism? Why hasn't anyone ever studied completely non-vaccinated children to understand their autism rate?

Please pay special attention to this paragraph. This seems to be the new direction the anti-vaccination movement is moving in, the new position of the goal post. What is so great about this line of thinking however is that it proves what we in the pro-health camp have known for a while: the anti-vaccine proponents know vaccines cause autism. No amount of contradictory evidence will ever be enough, because they will always fantasize something else about vaccines that they can demand to be studied, but that is OK. Our educational efforts are not aimed at the McCarthys, or Meryl Doreys, of the world, but to the parents who are on the fence and about to make a very important decision about their children’s health. We fight for them, and even more importantly for their children, which is why correcting the anti-vaccination misinformation is of paramount importance to the pro-health community

This is exactly how I feel so make sure you read the article over at JREF.

Vaccines Save Lives!!!

There is no question that the above statement is true but there are many out there who would have us not vaccinate ourselves and our children because of a made up link between autism and vaccines. Recently the British Medical Journal, BMJ, called the only study that anti-vaccine personalities cite saying that vaccines cause autism, fraudulent. This obviously struck a nerve with Jenny McCarthy. Some of the statements that she makes are not only wrong but they are anti-science and anti-medicine. Now while I am not as qualified as some, go here if you are really interested, let me address just some of her concerns.

Dr. Wakefield did something I wish all doctors would do: he listened to parents and reported what they said. His paper also said that, "Onset of behavioral symptoms was associated, by the parents, with measles, mumps and rubella vaccination in 8 of the 12 children," and that, "further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome [autism with gut disease] and its possible relation to this vaccine."

Believe it or not most doctors do listen to their patients. They have to in order to figure out what is wrong with us. When you go in to the doctor when you are sick does he ever just look at you and take a guess at what you have? No, he asks questions to try to narrow down the focus and then runs some test to see what he can find. As for the MMR vaccine there have been millions of dollars spent trying to see if it does cause autism. So far there have been no studies that conclude that vaccines cause autism, I say none because the one study that did has been retracted. An example can be found here in which those involved found:

Measles, mumps and rubella are three very dangerous infectious diseases which cause a heavy disease, disability and death burden in the developing world. Researchers from the Cochrane Vaccines Field reviewed 139 studies conducted to assess the effects of the live attenuated combined vaccine to prevent measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) in children. MMR protects children against infections of the upper airways but very rarely may cause a benign form of bleeding under the skin and milder forms of measles, mumps and rubella. No credible evidence of an involvement of MMR with either autism or Crohn's disease was found. No field studies of the vaccine's effectiveness were found but the impact of mass immunisation on the elimination of the diseases has been demonstrated worldwide.

Jenny McCarthy continues

American media, why aren't we hearing from these parents? If Brian Deer's allegations are actually false, if the Lancet 12 parents stand with Dr. Wakefield, then what exactly are moms and dads supposed to think about last week's media circus?

I know children regress after vaccination because it happened to my own son. Why aren't there any tests out there on the safety of how vaccines are administered in the real world, six at a time? Why have only 2 of the 36 shots our kids receive been looked at for their relationship to autism? Why hasn't anyone ever studied completely non-vaccinated children to understand their autism rate?

Jenny you just included quotes from the parents why don't you include quotes from parents whose children were infected with some of these diseases. There have been tests, see above, to see how safe the vaccines are in the real world.

Here is the real thing though. These vaccines are not 100% safe, no medicine is, but these diseases were/are worse. In the U.S. we have almost completely eliminated these diseases as seen the the graph below. The problem is that, as seen here and in the wikipedia article on the controversy, as people fight against these vaccines many of the diseases that can be prevented are making a come back and what is more is that we are losing our herd immunity. There will always be some who won't or can't be vaccinated for whatever reason but they were protected by the rest of us having been vaccinated, they/we are losing this now. Also those with immunodeficiency disorders or who have been taking drugs that suppress their immune system will be at high risk because they can't fight off the disease vaccinated or not.



Jenny your stance and people like you are distracting people and resources from being spent looking for the real cause of autism.

If you want to read more about the history of the anti-vaccine movement it appears that two new books have just come out which you can read a long review of one of them here and a quick review here.

Update: A blogger better equipped than me has responded